Members of the community who express an interest in the scheme are provided with letters to deliver to their neighbours to see who is interested in taking part. Once there are 8 – 10 interested parties, neighbours come together to form a Transition Streets group in their road. The initial meeting is facilitated by a member of Transition in Kings (TiK) in one of the members’ homes. At this initial meeting all members are provided with a free and comprehensive workbook filled with tips, information on government grants and practical suggestions on how to reduce waste and improve efficiency. Some of these actions are free to do, some require investment and some can be eligible for government grants.

There are seven meetings and members of the group decide for themselves when to have them – monthly/bi-monthly etc – and whether to have a break at Christmas or in August when members may be away. Aside from the initial facilitated meeting and a wrapping up meeting at the end, there are five meetings in between, themed as follows – energy, water, food, waste and transport.

During the trial scheme that TIK ran in 2015 with thirty-four households, apart from the information in the Transition Streets handbook, there was a great deal of information passed between members of the groups – different members had experience with heating controls, solar panels, electric vehicles, applying for grants and funding, reducing energy consumption and growing food. This was a real plus as it added to the wealth of information contained in the handbook.

Each household can save £500 a year with ease and some will save more, especially if they use the money saved to invest in further efficiency measures. Ideally this money would be spent on local goods and services to aid the local economy.

One of the new ideas we introduced in our “version” of this scheme was a thermal-image camera survey of participants’ homes which identified missing insulation and poorly performing windows and doors. We took pictures of problem areas and emailed them to the owners so they could look into improvements and show contractors exactly where the issues were.

Some of these groups continue to meet socially, which is no doubt helping to combat the loss of community spirit and loneliness that is a fairly constant criticism of our society, although I would say Kings Langley fares better than most in this regard, but we can still improve on this.

If you would like to take part and reduce your expenditure, get to know your neighbours better and reduce your impact on the environment, please keep an eye out for announcements regarding our new round of Transition Streets later this year.

Lindsey March

Bicester is famous all over the world as the site of the UK’s biggest tourist attraction, Bicester Village. The signs in Japanese that you see in London are to direct visitors there. It offers an immersive shopping experience, designed to help you consume as much fashion as you can manage to pack into your huge suitcase. But it may soon become as synonymous with restrained, sustainable, comfortable but also aware and proud ways of living, made possible in the Bicester Eco-Town, where residents began to move in in 2016. The second phase will have 6,000 homes.

TiK (Transition in Kings) hosted a talk by Nicole Lazarus who told us about Bicester Eco-Town. It follows on BedZED, a development in London which is sustainable and also a successful community, where houses sell for 10-15% above the average local price. She worked on this project and is now the Oxfordshire programme manager for Bioregional, working with a major housing provider and the local council to build the new town, whose first phase has 393 homes, a primary school, a community centre, an eco-pub and an eco-business and retail centre.

Bioregional is the organisation through which these projects are built. It is guided by the idea of ‘One Planet Living’ – seeking to make it easier for ordinary people to live happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the earth’s resources, leaving space for wildlife and wilderness. This idea has ten principles, covering health and happiness, equity and the local economy, culture and community, land use and wildlife, sustainable water, local and sustainable food, sustainable materials, sustainable transport, zero waste and zero carbon. They seek to deliver ambitious but practical products and services, which bring a commercial advantage for partners. http://www.bioregional.co.uk/

All the homes will be built to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5, incorporating triple glazing, rainwater harvesting and water recycling. Electricity will be generated from PV solar panels on every home. Heat and hot water will come from a combined heat and power plant, and will eventually use heat supplied by an energy-from-waste facility. There will be cycle and pedestrian routes, a bus stop within 400 metres of every home, live timetable updates in each house, charging points for electric vehicles and an electric car club.

As well as building the Eco-Town, Bioregional has delivered a lot of environmental and energy-saving projects to the residents of Bicester itself.

Bioregional constantly checks on what they have built to find whether their ideas have been successful or whether they need to be changed or modified, and communicates this follow-up research widely, so that any mistakes may be avoided by new eco-towns and villages. They work on a policy level, national and international. BedZED was initiated by Bioregional, developed by the Peabody Trust in partnership with Bioregional and designed with architects, ZEDfactory (based in BedZED) and Arup engineers. The homes are all very highly insulated but also well ventilated, using the wind cowls on the roofs. Fresh outside air is drawn into the building and pre-heated by outgoing stale air via heat exchangers. There is a mini district heating system, and a large hot-water tank in each home helps to keep it warm in winter as well as storing hot water.

TiK was very lucky to have heard this very encouraging and inspiring talk from Nicole. She has worked for Bioregional for 20 years and lived in BedZED for ten years. With us, she had a very appreciative audience, but she often speaks to audiences of developers and other business people, who are not necessarily so receptive. Speaking personally, I was very encouraged, while at the same time thinking, ‘Why are developers not required by law to do many of the things that BedZED were demonstrating back in 2002?’ Bioregional estimates that residents of BedZED save about £3,258 a year in transport, water and energy bills. That would be a worthy subject for the talents of the advertising specialists, along with advertisements for the delights of Bicester Village.

Just over two years ago, Transition in Kings (TiK), started the local food market on the High Street to increase the availability and awareness in Kings Langley of fresh, local produce. The aim is for villagers to be able to trace the provenance of the produce and meet the producers to learn more about their local products. Produce has to come from within 25 miles of Kings Langley and vegetables must be truly seasonal.

When the present owners bought Redbournbury Mill from the Crown, the mill had been unused since the 1950’s. At this stage the mill was well preserved, although it did need considerable repairs. It was almost unique as a historical record of an early Victorian water-mill. From crop to crust, Redbournbury Mill supplies the bread for the market. There is a fabulous selection of breads freshly baked on the morning of the market at the mill using their own stone-ground organic flour which is milled using French Burr stones. The mill bakery was built in 2005 within one of the barns in front of the mill. Bread baked at Redbournbury boasts the lowest possible “food-miles” with the grain grown, milled and baked all within two miles of the mill.

Hazeldene Native Rare Breeds Farm nestles in the folds of Asheridge Vale (Buckinghamshire) barely a mile from Chesham. The 70-acre farm has been run on traditional principles by Liz and Steve Bateman since 2006. All livestock is naturally reared and allowed to exhibit natural behaviour. Beef comes from English Traditional Hereford Cattle which is a very rare breed with only 1000 cows alive. Lamb comes from Oxford Down Sheep and pork comes from British Lop Pigs which are the rarest of native pigs with only 300 sows alive. Bred from a Cornwall and Devon pig in the 1880s, they are very docile, good mothers and produce excellent pork and bacon. At the market, as well as the meat for sale, you will often smell burgers and sausages cooking, all of which have been made on the farm. The giant Scotch eggs are a particular village favourite!

From Wobbly Bottom Farm deep in the Hertfordshire countryside comes a gourmet range of soft and hard goat’s cheeses made in small batches from milk produced fresh on the farm. The farm is run by Alan and Angela, who have been developing and perfecting their cheese-making craft since 2003. Today, Wobbly Bottom’s freshly-made products range from a simple, creamy soft goat’s cheese to cheddars infused with a delicious range of extras, including tangy root ginger, real ale and mustard, and cracked black peppercorns. What makes Wobbly Farm special is that the people who milk the goats are also the people who make the cheese.

Vegetables are picked fresh on the morning of the market from the TiK growing area at Rectory Farm. TiK volunteers tend the land according to organic principles with no artificial weed killers or fertilisers and plant and harvest the vegetables less than a mile from the market, so not even a food mile! What’s on offer depends on the season, but it will always be completely fresh. Our produce is supplemented with watercress from the River Chess in Sarratt and local eggs from Willowdene Farm.

Michael Youngman has been making honey for many years in Langley Hill and he sells his full range of local honey at the market. A special, and unusual, treat is the ivy honey which can only be made in certain years when there is sufficient ivy pollen in September. It has a very distinctive flavour and has a number of health benefits.

It’s a challenge to source fresh fish within 25 miles of Kings Langley! But while the fish comes from further away, we know that is it very fresh from the sea in Grimsby and tastes just how fish should. Derrick Cheers drives down early on market mornings to be with us with his wonderful fresh fish.

There are a number of other stalls that change from time to time and we are always delighted to welcome new stallholders so, if you would like to have a stall with local produce, please e-mail John Morrish, the Market Manager: morrishj@virginmedia.com.

We hope that this brief article has enthused you about the benefits of local produce and that we will see you soon at the market. It’s the third Saturday of every month from 9am to 1pm on Kings Langley High Street outside where the Sorting Office used to be.